Compensation fight
Diorama of Kader fire at the Thai Labour Museum, Bangkok
synthetic materials used to stuff toys. It will probably never be known which if any of these theories is correct. What does seem clear is that disregard for proper fire safety practices was a major factor in the high casualty toll. Yet no one besides Viroj was ever held legally accountable in any way for the tragedy. A Nakhon Pathom court allegedly cleared 14 Kader executives, including the factory’s managing director, an engineer and a shareholder, of all charges. The only legal recognition of Kader Industrial’s culpability was a fine of 520,000 baht. In the aftermath of the disaster, the ICFTU published a report titled, “From the Ashes – A Toy Factory in Thailand”. The report gave some background on the corporate structure of the toy company. Here are some excerpts: “Kader Industrial (Thailand) Co., Ltd. began manufacturing in 1988 and set up the Thai Chui-fu Holding as a publicly listed company in 1990, with 20 percent shares traded in Thailand’s stock market. “In Thailand, Kader was set up as a foreign joint venture with the CP (Charoen Pokphand) Group. The Thailand-based CP Group, in turn, created a company in Hong Kong known as Honbo Investment. Honbo Investment and Kader Industrial then formed another company, KCP Toys, also listed in Hong Kong.”
Legacy of negligence
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n February 2011, the ILO Encyclopaedia of Occupational Health and Safety website presented its own report on the Kader fire: “Case Study: The Kader Toy Factory Fire” also saying: “Kader Industrial (Thailand) Co., Ltd. was first registered on January 27, 1989, but the company’s licence was suspended on November 21, 1989, after a fire on August 16, 1989, that destroyed the new plant. After the plant was rebuilt, the Ministry of Industry allowed the factory to reopen on July 4, 1990. “Between the time the factory re-opened and the May 1993 fire, the facility experienced several other, smaller fires. One of them, which occurred in February 1993, did considerable damage to Building Three, which was still being repaired at the time of the fire on May 10, 1993. “Several days after the [February] blaze a labour inspector visited the site and issued a warning that pointed out the plant’s need for safety officers, safety equipment and an emergency plan.” Other reports on the May 1993 fire point out that the factory was poorly designed and constructed; fire exits drawn in the building plans were not actually constructed; external doors that did exist were locked; the building was reinforced with steel girders that quickly lost integrity and collapsed because of the high heat.
Academics, trade unions and nongovernmental organisations joined victims, their families and supporters in efforts to receive proper compensation. The coalition resulted in the ‘Working Group for the Support of Kader Workers’. Under pressure from the Working Group, CP eventually acknowledged its connection to the factory. The Working Group threatened to organise an international boycott of Kader products and attracted media attention sufficient to bring Kader representatives to negotiations for increased compensation. According to the ICFTU report: “A memorandum of agreement was signed on July 13, 1993, and resulted in a several fold increase of compensation coverage by Kader. Up to US$12,000 was added to the total compensation package per individual by Kader instead of the original US$4,000 that was offered. This was subject to the victims and families agreeing not to later pursue legal action for compensation.” From the ICFTU report: “Kader agreed to pay additional medical costs not covered by government compensation. Monthly education payments for the children of deceased parents and minimum payments to short-term workers would not have been included as compensation either. “Kader agreed to pay for additional medical costs not covered by government compensation. Monthly education payments for the children of deceased parents and minimum payments to short-term workers would not have been included as compensation either. “Kader also agreed, eventually, to offer suitable jobs (in an eventual new operation) to injured workers, to the relatives of the victims and to the workers previously employed there for three or more years. Finally, Kader agreed to pay all outstanding salaries, overtime payments, annual holiday payments and all amounts for compensation to the government for disbursement.”
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